Today, many printing devices includes “Job retention printing capability”. A detailed explanation of job retention printing is described by the patent entitled “Multiple copy printer with print job retention”, U.S. Pat. No. 6,160,629. That patent is incorporated herein by reference.
Job retention, generally, refers to a printer's ability to store a received print job locally in the printer's local storage device (e.g., the printer's local disk drive). The print job is printed when certain conditions are met. There are a several types of retention printing.
A first type of retention printing is commonly referred to as “quick copy printing”. According to quick copy printing, a printer stores a received multi-copy print job and prints the copies. Thereafter, a walk-up user can cause additional copies to be printed by interacting with the printer's control panel.
A second type of retention printing is commonly referred to as “Proof and Hold” printing. According to “Proof and Hold” printing, a printer stores a received multi-copy print job and prints a limited number of copies (typically one copy). Thereafter, a walk-up user can cause the rest of the copies to be printed by “releasing them” from the printer's control panel.
A third type of retention printing is commonly referred to as “private” printing. According to private printing, a printer stores a received print job and delays printing until a privacy code is entered by a walk-up user at the printer's control panel.
A fourth type of retention printing is commonly referred to as “simple retention” printing. According to simple retention printing, a received print job is simply stored and not printed. Future printing of the job is then available to walk up users via the printer's control panel
In each of the four types of retention printing mentioned above, it is the user that originally sent the print job that is typically also the “walk-up user”. In many situations, this can be inconvenient to the user and cost the user valuable time. Accordingly, there is a need for an easier way to allow the user to print a retained print job.